Friday, August 24, 2012

Number 20 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to start Carter in the Mother’s Day Out program at St. Mark UMC, where Justin and I go to church. On Tuesday of this week, he got to meet his teachers at the meet and greet. He has Ms. Lisa and Ms. Lee Ann. They don’t go to our church so I don’t know them personally, but they seem really great! Carter is already familiar with the room he’ll be in because it’s the same room he goes to when he goes to the nursery while Justin and I are at Sunday School or the Hillside service on Sundays.

I was so nervous about him going because he’s not used to being around other babies (my MIL keeps him during the day while I’m at work). He’s also not used to napping while other babies are in the room making noise. Carter is a very observant child and if he hears people talking or sees other people during naptime, he won’t sleep. So I was also worried about his napping.

His first day was yesterday and Justin took him and picked him up because I was in an all day seminar at work and couldn’t leave. He goes to MDO two days a week from 9am-1pm and I plan to take him in the mornings and my MIL will pick him up in the afternoons. Unfortunately, yesterday I couldn’t do either, so Justin did both. Call him Mr. Mom!

Justin said he was great when he got there. He even put him down to play with the twins and none of them even noticed when Justin and Jen left the room. When Justin went back to pick him up at noon (today was just until noon to help get the babies adjusted) he was in the exersaucer playing and gave the BIGGEST smile when he saw his daddy. Justin said that the teachers said he did really well. He slept, but only for about 30 minutes (Justin and I are honestly surprised he slept that much). He ate the best of all the babies, but still didn’t eat all of his bottle. He got a little fussy before naptime but they were able to calm him down by rocking him and then that’s when he took his 30 minute nap.

There are a lot of rules with the program and one of them is that each child needs to have a lunchbox and a bag (not a diaper bag because they’re too big and won’t fit in the cubbies). Apparently my MIL knew this already before we did and got sweet boy a little “back to school” present:

How sweet is she?!?! But it’s still crazy to think that my 8 month old has a lunch box. Wow. I’m so excited for Carter to be in this class though. Right now there are 5 babies in there. Two of them are the twins, Carter’s cousins Cynthia and Celia, and two other girls that aren’t church members. Yes, he’s the only boy :) I think it will be great for him to learn how to share and how to treat others and he’ll learn social skills from such a young age. I’m also excited for all he gets to do too! They take them to the gym to play and they get to go outside and they have story time and creative art time. I know he’s going to love it!

**I BEGGED my husband to take a picture of him on his first day but he’s a dude. Dudes don’t take pictures apparently :)

Oh how fun! I was thinking about doing something like this for Hayes. He is at home with my mom, while we are at work, and I think it might be good for him to interact with other babies. I think he has only ever met one baby. haha he leads a sheltered life